Book Review Kamasutra

Wendy Doniger's Redeeming Kamasutra is an interesting study though somewhat prejudiced and even perfunctory in providing opinions rather than following the text of an ancient manual on human nature and behavior.

Hinduism and Universality in Religion

The essay first considers the terms “Hindu” and “Hinduism” with their continuing ambivalence as meaning both the ethnic or national and the “religious.” It then takes up the problem of definition and whether one may speak of a single “Hinduism.” The term “religion” and critiques of it as Western are discussed and an account of religion as worldview, ethics and practice, following Geertz and Smart, is proposed as viable and applicable to Hinduism as well as other traditions. Two senses of “universality” as empirical and normative are explained. Brereton’s general characterization of Hinduism is held up; drawing on Lorenzen, Nicholson and others it is noted that a self-conscious identity of “Hindu dharma” emerged centuries before the colonial period. The essay then turns to Swami Vivekānanda’s constructive exposition of universal dimensions of “Hinduism” in the context of modern religious plurality. He holds that the human aspiration to know God is universal, as are moral norms, and that this can be shown from the evidence but at the same time variation is an inherent pattern of the universe. Many religious truth-claims thus inevitably emerge as differing expressions of the search for the one transcendent Source of existence. These are complementary, not mutually exclusive, and an “absolute” truth is the sum total of all the variations. Moreover religion is evolving, so that revelation is open-ended and many more religions will appear. Vivekananda offers an inclusive pluralism rooted in Vedāntic ontology and the theologically normative view that religion is at its core a quest for union with one sacred ultimate reality variously apprehended.

Brahman and Dao: Comparative Studies in Indian and Chinese Philosophy and Religion.

Brahman and Dao: Comparative Studies in Indian and Chinese Philosophy and Religion.

“Postal” Discontents

How to produce meaningful knowledge about ourselves in India? I got interested in this problem over twenty years back. This paper is an account of that experience. The issue of what constitutes valid knowledge about India, The problem is that an official critique of the dominant, such as post-modernism embodies, carries with it many of the oppressive vestiges of what it seeks to overturn. A genuine alternative might emerge for us in India only by fracturing the authority of this overriding Euro-American discourse itself. But if one departs from the dominant discourse, one’s position is generally not accepted as acceptable knowledge. This, then, remains our conundrum: if you say it their way you are co-opted; if you say it differently, it is not considered knowledge. A situated re-examination of this discursive tangle exposes the continuing challenges inherent in producing meaningful knowledge even in our present context. This is as it should be because the central crisis at the heart of modernity itself is, arguably, the crisis of knowledge. Therefore, we must re-articulate our personal and civilisational aspirations in alternate languages, even if these are not at once accorded recognition or legitimacy.

Dharma and the Academy: A Hindu Academic's View

The relations between the academic community and the Hindu community have recently come to be characterized by a sharp debate, which has also spilled over into journalism and the Internet. This development has been prompted by the reservations expressed by a significant number of Hindus in North America and India over the way Hinduism is portrayed in the Western academia and by the vigorous response of the academic community to such criticism. As an academic, who is also a Hindu; or conversely, as a Hindu, who is also an academic, I (along with some of my other Hindu colleagues) stand at the volatile point of intersection between these two communities. This makes my role in the debate particularly fraught. I shall, nevertheless, try to address the issue or issues involved.